Twitter

Is there possibly a bigger overnight success story than Twitter? Launched in 2006, it was a quirky little thing that let people post short messages — a mere 140 characters — and follow the posts of others. What could you possible have to say that other people would want to read? Or, what could you possibly say in so few characters?

Turns out, quite a bit.

As of March 2014, Twitter boasted 225 million monthly active users. It does somewhere near a quarter-billion dollars in revenue in a quarter. You can't turn on a TV or watch a morning show or see a billboard or visit Facebook or load a website without seeing a reference to Twitter. Or to a "hashtag" — the unofficial method by which Twitter users began making their tweets more easily searchable. It's not quite as ubiquitous as, say, text messaging, but it's not that far off, either. Twitter is a way for celebrities other members of the famous ilk to "connect" with their fans. It's a way for anyone to communicate with everyone.

And mobile quickly became Twitter's go-to medium. The ability to post from anywhere, at any time, be it via app or mobile site or text. The ability to post a selfie or countless pictures of food. Or, more important as we started to see with the Arab Spring uprising, the ability to share news as it's happening (much to the chagrin of the occasional government).

It's not all been without controversy, however, especially when it comes to apps. Twitter still provides APIs for developers to tap into, but it has significantly capped the number of users new apps can have, thus limiting the usefulness of apps as a revenue source for developers. Meanwhile, Twitter's own apps have been a bit of a mess, off and on.

With Twitter, you have to take the good (social change and the connecting of the world) with the bad (anything and everything Kardashian and Bieber). And that's OK. Because you only have to take it for 140 characters at a time.

All Twitter

A cute distraction.
Admittedly, it's always fun to tweet random emoji at Google's Twitter account, but that's not how this works. In an effort to show off how powerful its search engine's Nearby capabilities really are, Google is tweeting back.
Here's how it works: Tweet an emoji at the official...

Twitter is trying to win back the support of people who have left the network.
Twitter has debuted a number of new tools to cut down on harassment and improve user engagement on a network that repeatedly has been accused of fostering hate speech through its public forum.
The main feature is an...

After being available on the beta channel for quite some time, Twitter has finally brought the night mode to all Android users. Turning on night mode is pretty simple, with a switch that allows you to easily toggle between the two modes when you want to switch them up. Enabling night mode doesn't...

Getting verified on Twitter with an Android phone is as easy as filling out a form.
Twitter recently opened up its verification procedure to anyone who wants to attempt to convince the company they are worth that coveted blue checkmark.
While it's still unclear how Twitter decides how one gets...

Twitter is helping TD Bank in Canada to launch the country's first custom emoji. The #ForeverProud circle was created to show TD's support for the LGBT community.
Show your pride with a new emoji from TD! Tweet #ForeverProud to get your #ForeverProud emoji. Show your Pride!https://t.co/...

Twitter is making it a bit easier for users to apply for "Verified" status — signified by a blue badge icon usually reserved for public figures. What was previously somewhat of a convoluted process has now been streamlined as an online application process.
From Twitter:
Twitter announced...

A smart transition takes things from white to black, but still keeps the app easy to read.
For a long time — OK, a long time insofar as Twitter is concerned — the conventional wisdom was that the powers that be cared only about you tweeting from Twitter's website, and apps be damned. The official...

Twitter will soon begin rolling out a new feature to its iOS and Android apps, along with Twitter.com, that will allow for adding stickers to any uploaded photos in a post.
Coming soon! Unleash your creativity by adding fun #Stickers to your photos on Twitter: https://t.co/Ph92Oivyhy pic....

Twitter is now allowing anyone to upload longer videos to their accounts. The new video length limit is 140 seconds, compared to the older limit of 30 seconds. Twitter's sister app Vine is beta testing a way to upload videos up to 140 seconds as well.
Now, everyone can post videos up to 140...

People can now launch live broadcasts on Twitter-owned Periscope directly from the Twitter mobile app on Android and iOS. Doing so is as simple as heading to the compose screen, tapping the camera icon, and selecting the Live option.
From Twitter:
Ready to go live? Now everyone can tap a new...

Twitter has acknowledged that "numerous" usernames and passwords seems to have been leaked. The company says that while it is confident that its own servers haven't been breached, it would appear that the leaks came from attacks on other websites and services.
From the Twitter blog:
We've...

The official Twitter app for Android has received a bit of a visual refresh that should make navigating the app easier overall. Currently rolling out as part of the app's latest update, the refresh sees a new tab bar at the top of the app that lets you swipe between sections. There's also a new...